It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 2:27 am

All times are UTC - 8 hours [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 2 posts ] 
Author Message
Offline
 Post subject: New slant on "Reading to improve"
Post #1 Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2015 6:58 am 
Oza

Posts: 3647
Liked others: 20
Was liked: 4626
I was editing my Names Dictionary and having done entries for Felix Dueball and Edward Lasker in quick succession, the thought occurred to me that they and similar players show that just playing is unlikely to be even remotely useful for becoming strong.

Players like them were handicapped by normally having no books and no stronger players to talk to. So they just played or thought for themselves. Despite being of very high intellectual calibre and being passionate about go, they remained at kyu or low-dan level. By visiting Japan for a year and being feted by the likes of Honinbo Shusai, Dueball got to play top players on five stones (perhaps generously to him). Lasker had some access to written information and oriental players and he apparently only got to about 1-dan amateur (Takagawa's estimate - a 4-stone game with Kitani Reiko was probably out of politeness by her).

Other western players in similar circumstances didn't achieve even those modest heights. It seems a fair hypothesis, then, that either books or instruction from strong players is what makes the biggest difference (as with Dueball).

Incidentally, at the same time I came across again the well known story of Emanuel Lasker, world chess champion, deciding that his research on go made him the equal of the world's best. Having beaten down a Japanese amateur resident in Germany to two stones, the Japanese arranged a game with a visiting friend who was a 1-dan (a 6-dan amateur in our terms) and would play Lasker, giving him 9-stones. Lasker allegedly said,"There isn't a man in the world who can give me 9 stones. I have studied the game for a year and I know I understood what they were doing." I just love logic :). Lasker was supposedly crushed of course. But, again, he had no books...


This post by John Fairbairn was liked by 4 people: Bonobo, Codexus, DrStraw, gowan
Top
 Profile  
 
Offline
 Post subject: Re: New slant on "Reading to improve"
Post #2 Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2015 7:20 am 
Lives in gote

Posts: 324
Liked others: 13
Was liked: 56
Rank: kgs 4k
I'm strongly convinced that at the very least tsumego and game records are necessary material to get to a high level.

The tsumego for training the mind and to build a library of usable local moves, and the game records to demonstrate how they are used, to derive an opening theory and joseki playbook, and to show how many moves are still inscrutable after all that work.

I'm sure if Emanuel Lasker had a few hundred professional game records, he would never have been so heedless in asserting his own perfection.

I really wonder what those great minds of the past could have done with the resources I can trivially access today. Also, I wonder what people will achieve who grow up having answers to very many questions freely and instantly available.

Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 2 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 8 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group